 | With Bob Rae's announcement last week that he would not seek the
leadership of the federal Liberal Party, it's time to finally declare
that the Liberal Party of Canada is finally dead. Frankly, it’s about time. The Liberals were on life-support
for 22 years. | |
South Dundas - June 20, 2012 - With Bob Rae's announcement last week that he would not seek the
leadership of the federal Liberal Party, it's time to finally declare
that the Liberal Party of Canada is finally dead. Gone. Fini. Kaput.
Fertig. Frankly, it’s about time. The Liberals were on life-support
for 22 years, since Jean Chretien won the leadership, and the party
would have been long gone had the Progressive Conservatives had not
fallen apart at the seams in the aftermath of Brian Mulroney's
leadership.
Look back at the leadership race of 1990 between Jean Chretien and
Paul Martin. That race was divisive and laid the ground for the end of
the Liberals. Martin was able to get Chretien to speak out against
Meech Lake during the party leadership contest, which wounded Chretien
in Quebec throughout his leadership. In the wake of the leadership
contest, quietly festering under the smiles after Chretien’s win, was
a Paul Martin who wanted to win. That desire to win ripped the
Liberal’s inner workings to shreds. Riding associations were stacked
with pro-Martin memberships so that when the time came, it would be
hard to not vote Paul Martin in to replace Chretien when he decided to
leave.
The problem was that Chretien was not going to go on anyone’s terms
but his own. Martin couldn’t push him out, and it wasn’t for a lack of
trying. When Chretien announced that he was done in 2003, there was no
one in the party who could successfully run against Martin. Sheila
Copps tried but all of the heavy hitters who could have given Martin a
run for his money declined, Frank McKenna, Brian Tobin, or John
Manley. All were potential candidates who could have done well,
possibly knocked Martin out. But they were smart because the party was
wounded.
Flash-forward to 2006, Paul Martin announced on election night during
his concession speech that he would quit as leader. He knew the party
which he had taken over would be out for his own hide, and left while
he could. The ensuing leadership race was billed as a renewal, it was
only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Again the heavy
hitters who could have done well did not enter the race. They
considered themselves winners and knew that the Liberal brand, the
Liberal organization in its present form, could not win. No one wants
to be leader of an also-ran party. Enter the cast of characters, Rae,
Ignatieff, Dion, Kennedy and others. All with baggage of one type or
another, no rock stars.
As soon as Dion won the leadership, as the compromise candidate, the
end was in sight. Dion fizzled and the quasi-leadership selection
process placed Michael Ignatieff as head of the Liberals. Party
members got the Defibrillator paddles out. Ignatieff left quickly
after the 2011 election and what the Liberals had left was Bob Rae.
And then it was gone.
Now it can truly rebuild. Since the Kingston Conference in 1960 and
the 1968 leadership convention, there has not been a true wiping of
the slate of the Liberal party. Everyone else has done it. The NDP
cast off the stigma of socialism, but not the values of it, with the
election of Jack Layton as their leader. Stephen Harper managed to
coral two warring factions of the right into one cohesive party. Both
leaders did so by having a vision that was, at least to some people,
something new. The Liberals on the other hand have offered the same
brand, same values, same ideology and same old way of thinking for
three full generations.
The Liberals would not be able to shuck themselves of the baggage of
22 years of decline without the last bastion of baggage, Bob Rae,
being out of the picture. Without any of the “old-guard” left, there
is wide open room for renewal.
So you the reader might ask, why does this small-c conservative
leaning writer want to see a reborn Liberal party? Simply put, because
we need diversity of ideas. The risk we have in Canada is to have a
right-wing party, and a left-wing party; Conservatives verses New
Democrats. Neither side have compromise as a word in their vocabulary.
Both parties under their respective leaders have a “my way or the
highway” approach to running a party, and if they are in power,
running a country. If either party is left to balance the other
without another party to help temper the dialogue, Canada will be
governed more and more like the United States, one knee-jerk
over-reaction compensating for a knee-jerk over-reaction from the
previous government.
Where you may in the past have had a compromise solution to
legislation on EI, you now get the Conservatives complete overhaul. If
the NDP win power in 2015, look for a complete 180 degree change to
EI. Neither way is sustainable. This is just one issue. Now picture
this dichotomised shift on each and every issue from buying paper
clips to fighter jets.
A strong and rebuilt Liberal party I may not agree with their policies
or views, but the Liberals have almost always had policies and ideas
that have appealed to many and have been moderate. No one can claim
that the Liberals were extreme left or extreme right in this country.
|
